Reported Paris Hilton hacker cops to new intrusions targeting police

A Massachusetts man who reportedly illegally accessed the cell phone of socialite Paris Hilton 10 years ago has agreed to serve four years in federal prison for a more recent hacking spree that targeted computer networks around the country, including those belonging to law enforcement organizations that stored sensitive data and communications.

Cameron Lacroix, 25, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, submitted a written agreement to plead guilty to two counts of computer intrusion and one count of access device fraud, documents filed in Boston federal court alleged. Over a two-year span beginning in May 2011, the man pursued a hacking spree that targeted a multitude of groups, prosecutors said. One of the hacked networks belonged to a local Massachusetts police department and exposed an e-mail account belonging to the unidentified department's chief of police. Lacroix is also accused of repeatedly penetrating the defenses of other law enforcement computer servers containing sensitive information, including police reports, intelligence reports, arrest warrants, and sex offender information.

Another prong of his alleged two-year hacking spree was the Bristol Community College. Prosecutors said Lacroix breached the college's servers on multiple occasions from September 2012 to December 2013 so he could change his grades and those of two other students. Lacroix allegedly used stolen login credentials belonging to three instructors to gain illegal access. The man is also accused of obtaining and possessing payment card data for more than 14,000 unique account holders. As part of the plea agreement, Lacroix is expected to be sentenced to four years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.

Damn, this was one talented kid. To bad he couldn't use his computer prowess for good. He would have had a hell of a career in any I.T world. Maybe he still will I suppose. It just seems to be a waste of some serious talent.

Damn, this was one talented kid. To bad he couldn't use his computer prowess for good. He would have had a hell of a career in any I.T world. Maybe he still will I suppose. It just seems to be a waste of some serious talent.

Which talent? Breaking into poorly secured systems? That sounds like the equivalent of breaking into houses by throwing a brick through the window.

The kid was apparently not talented enough to pass community college on his merits.

Damn, this was one talented kid. To bad he couldn't use his computer prowess for good. He would have had a hell of a career in any I.T world. Maybe he still will I suppose. It just seems to be a waste of some serious talent.

Juvenile offense, probation violation, new offense - not sure this sounds like someone who's ready to come over to the good side. Too bad, because you're right that he could have been doing something much better. IMO 25 years old and at least his third offense makes this way more than "boys will be boys."

I believe in the ability of people to reform and improve themselves, but with this record, I wouldn't be the first to hire him out of prison. It'll take a lot to prove himself after all this, unfortunately.

Between the painful punning of 'cops' to hacking the police and the torturing of sentence structure to do so, I'd have to agree. My English isn't that great though, so who am I to judge.

I had to read the title something like 10 times and still I'm not sure I got the full grasp of it.Granted, English isn't my first language, but "journal title English" is one of the worst types of technical English ever. Starting from dropping a conjunction ("politician charged of corruption, fraud"), passing to unusual constructs ("Google to patch camera app") and ending with a mess like this.It may have a sense on a newspaper (one made of paper, I mean), which has limited space for a title. But on a news site you don't run out of pixels and it just hurts those who aren't experienced enough to read these titles.

I've been reading sites like Ars for years and still I have serious issues for titles like this.Ars staff, please, for the sake of your international readers, make your titles easier to understand.

I admit I actually opened the article just to find out what the heck is it about and if some comment could help me with the title.

Damn, this was one talented kid. To bad he couldn't use his computer prowess for good. He would have had a hell of a career in any I.T world. Maybe he still will I suppose. It just seems to be a waste of some serious talent.

Juvenile offense, probation violation, new offense - not sure this sounds like someone who's ready to come over to the good side. Too bad, because you're right that he could have been doing something much better. IMO 25 years old and at least his third offense makes this way more than "boys will be boys."

I believe in the ability of people to reform and improve themselves, but with this record, I wouldn't be the first to hire him out of prison. It'll take a lot to prove himself after all this, unfortunately.

I used to know this guy in high school and college - rather intelligent, had good knowledge of Linux, programming skills, did some hacking. Seems like he was never able to fit in, ended up dropping out of college, then out of the the military.

This Cameron Lacroix guy seems similar - no matter the circumstances, he just can't function within the societal norms and has to commit this kind of stuff.

Even the linked article about Paris Hilton doesn't actually have any hacking in it. It's all social engineering - literally, they asked a TMo employee for an Intranet location along with credentials for it, then used it to find PH's phone number and change its password.

Its called a 'plea bargain', not an 'option'. What he wants to do is 'plea bargain', its not unusual for a person to try to do such if they think they will face a stiffer sentence without it. They don't give the 'option' unless the prosecution side brings up the possibility first but a person can try to prompt some type of deal without the prosecution prompting it first. That's what he is trying to get going or accepted, a 'plea bargain' arangement.

rather than risk a stiffer sentence as a trial prosecution outcome he .....

Quote:

....submitted a written agreement to plead guilty to two counts of computer intrusion and one count of access device fraud, documents filed in Boston federal court alleged.